This week’s biotechnology news headlines include, new Ebola vaccines on the horizon, Celltrion submits biosimilar to FDA, drug makers vie for InterMune, looking for genetic ties to bowel disease, ViaCyte raises money toward diabetes treatment, and Sanofi to pay MannKind for inhaled insulin.
Cell Culture Events
August
The Bioprocessing Summit – August 18-22, 2014 – Renaissance Waterfront Hotel – Boston, MA
Bioproduction – October 8-9, 2014 – Barcelo Sants Hotel – Barcelona, Spain
BioProduction 2014 is Europe’s leading and largest event for a comprehensive update on operational strategies, technologies, regulatory challenges, manufacturing production and process development in biological manufacturing.
http://www.informa-ls.com/event/bio-production14?xtssot=0
Bioprocessing International – October 20-23, 2014 Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA
“Sanofi (SAN) agreed to pay MannKind Corp. (MNKD) as much as $925 million for global rights to the world’s only available inhaled insulin less than seven weeks after the drug won regulatory approval in the U.S. Sanofi will pay $150 million up front and as much as $775 million if the drug, Afrezza, meets certain sales and development targets, the two companies said in a statement today. Paris-based Sanofi will take 65 percent of profit or loss related to Afrezza, and will also advance Valencia, California-based MannKind as much as $175 million in expenses.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Paper or Plastic: A Study on Single-use and Sustainability”
“South Korea’s Celltrion has submitted its biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co’s anti-inflammatory blockbuster Remicade to regulators in the USA. The filing of Remsima, Celltrion’s version of Remicade (infliximab) is the first for a monoclonal antibody using the Food and Drug Administration’s new biosimilar pathway. Last month, the agency accepted the first actual biosimilar for review, Novartis unit Sandoz’s Zarzio, a version of Amgen’s Neupogen (filgrastim) for patients with low white blood cell counts.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Single-use Technology for Microbial Fermentation”
“Home genetics company 23andMe on Tuesday said it hopes to uncover gene mutations linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by enrolling 10,000 people with the hard-to-treat malady and examining DNA from their donated saliva samples.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Single-use Perfusion Culture Enables Continuous Bioproduction.”
“ViaCyte Inc. has announced it has raised $5.4 million in private financing to pursue the clinical development of its artificial pancreas, which could treat type 1 diabetes.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Progress is Being Made Toward Using Cell Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes”
“NewLink Genetics Corp, which licensed an Ebola vaccine developed by Canadian government scientists, has enough doses on hand to launch the first human safety trial of an Ebola vaccine this summer, its chief executive said on Wednesday.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Highlights of the 14th World Vaccine Congress – A Cell Culture Perspective”
“As Africa continues to experience the most severe Ebola outbreak in the disease’s short history, the World Health Organization has deemed it ethical to offer unregistered interventions as potential treatments or preventive therapies, including investigational vaccines. The announcement comes on the heels of news that GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) may be able to deliver one such vaccine by 2015.”
If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Flexible Facilities for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing”
